No Influence of Musicianship on the Effect of Contralateral Stimulation on Frequency Selectivity

The efferent system may control the gain of the cochlea and thereby influence frequency selectivity. This effect can be assessed using contralateral stimulation (CS) applied to the ear opposite to that used to assess frequency selectivity. The effect of CS may be stronger for musicians than for nonm...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Trends in hearing 2020, Vol.24, p.2331216520939776
Main Authors: Tarnowska, Emilia, Wicher, Andrzej, Moore, Brian C. J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acoustic Stimulation
Cochlea
Ears & hearing
Humans
Medical screening
Music
Musicians & conductors
Noise
Perceptual Masking
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The efferent system may control the gain of the cochlea and thereby influence frequency selectivity. This effect can be assessed using contralateral stimulation (CS) applied to the ear opposite to that used to assess frequency selectivity. The effect of CS may be stronger for musicians than for nonmusicians. To assess whether this was the case, psychophysical tuning curves (PTCs) were compared for 12 musicians and 12 nonmusicians. The PTCs were measured with and without a 60-dB sound pressure level (SPL) pink-noise CS, using signal frequencies of 2 and 4 kHz. The sharpness of the PTCs was quantified using the measure Q10, the signal frequency divided by the PTC bandwidth measured 10 dB above the level at the tip. Q10 values were lower in the presence of the CS, but this effect did not differ significantly for musicians and nonmusicians. The main effect of group (musicians vs. nonmusicians) on the Q10 values was not significant. Overall, these results do not support the idea that musicianship enhances contralateral efferent gain control as measured using the effect of CS on PTCs.
ISSN:2331-2165
2331-2165
DOI:10.1177/2331216520939776